1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to a card connector, and especially to a card connector which is adapted for insertion/ejecting of a card.
2. Description of Related Art
A card connector is generally used as an expanded recording apparatus of an electronic equipment such as a personal computer or a digital camera. PC card or memory card is installed in the card connector to electrically connect with the card connector for writing and reading necessary information. The card connector comprises an insulating housing for receiving a card, a plurality of contacts received in the insulating housing for electrically contacting with the card, a shell covering the insulating housing and an ejector for ejecting the card.
The ejector is often formed with a slider being movable in a card insertion/ejecting direction and defining a heart groove, a spring and a guiding pin with two ends, one end retained to the insulating housing, and the other end movably received in the heart groove. The guiding pin and the heart groove form a locking member, which can lock the slider in a final position against the force of compressed spring. And the card connector often has a component pressing the guiding pin toward the heart groove to prevent the guiding pin from jumping out from the heart groove. Such a component may be an elastic piece stamped from the shell and connecting with the shell at an end thereof. However, since the shell is thin, the elastic piece is easily broken at the joint.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,839,431 discloses an improved card connector including an insulating housing, a plurality of SMT (surface mounting technology) contacts, a metal shell and a common ejector and a separate metal piece. The metal piece is assembled to a sidewall of the insulating housing and located between an outside of the sidewall and a sidewall of the shell. The metal piece has a elastic arm pressing the guiding pin to ward the heart groove, a retaining portion engaging with the insulating housing and a tail extending beyond the insulating housing and soldered to a print circuit board. However, the insulating housing defines slot for retaining the metal piece in addition, and the tail of the metal piece must in a same surface with the tails of the contacts for being soldered to the print circuit board, that increase the difficulties of the assembly and the costs of the electrical card connector.
Hence, an improved card connector is highly desired to overcome the aforementioned disadvantages of the prior art.